Charaxes jahlusa

Charaxes jahlusa, the pearl-spotted emperor or pearl spotted charaxes, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae found in southern Africa.[2]

Pearl-spotted emperor
From Adalbert Seitz's Fauna Africana
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Charaxes
Species:
C. jahlusa
Binomial name
Charaxes jahlusa
(Trimen, 1862)[1]
Synonyms
  • Nymphalis jahlusa Trimen, 1862
  • Charaxes argynnides Westwood, 1864
  • Charaxes jahlusa kenyensis f. pallene van Someren, 1974
  • Charaxes jahlusa kigoma van Someren, 1974

Description in Seitz

Jahlusa Group. Differs from all the other charaxes groups in the light, green or yellowish, veins. Both wings above with narrow, light- spotted, black marginal band; forewing in addition with black spots in the cell and the basal part of cellules 1b- 8; these spots are rounded and on the under surface margined with white. Hindwing above almost unmarked, beneath with large silver spots at the anal angle obtusely produced and with two small tails, of which the one at vein 2 is somewhat longer. Colourand markings decidedly Argynnis-like. Distal margin of the forewing in the male deeply, in the female more weakly excised. Ch. jahlusa Trim. Wings above light orange-yellow with black marginal band, 3 (male) or 4 (female) mm. in breadth, which on the forewing only encloses large marginal spots, on the hindwing both submarginal spots and also marginal streaks. Forewing above in addition with a dot and a curved transverse streak in the cell, a transverse streak at the end of the cell, two discal dots each in 1 a and 2, a spot each in 3-7 and a longitudinal streak in 4-7 just inside the marginal band black. Hindwing above without markings or with small black transverse streaks in 2 and 4-7. Forewing beneath in the cell and in cellules 1a -2 light reddish, at the costal margin and in the apical area olive-grey with a large silver-white spot behind the middle of the costal margin; the black spots almost as above. Hindwing beneath at the base and at the distal margin dark olive-coloured, in the middle with continuous silver-white transverse band, in the basal part of cellule 7 with a large silver spot, the cell and cellule 1c each with two smaller ones; two black dots in cellule la and 3 in 8; the interneural folds of cellules lb-6 inside the marginal band with black longitudinal streaks. Abdomen beneath with a black longitudinal line at each side; these streaks anteriorly thickened and often joined together. Cape to Transvaal. - argynnides Westw. is the more northern form, occurring at the Zambesi, in Nyassaland and German East Africa. The black lines on the underside of the abdomen are broken up into spots, the transverse streak in the cell of the forewing is also divided into spots and the silver-white markings on the under surface are smaller.[3]

Biology

Flight period is from October to March, some species are year-round.[4]

Larvae feed on Pappea capensis, Dalbergia melanoxylon, and Haplocoelum foliosum.[2][4]

The habitat is Savanna extending into Karoo and Albany thicket. In Tanzania the habitat is forest, on forest margins and in dry evergreen forest See Afrotropical realm for broad description of habitats. Notes on the biology of jahlusa are provided by Kielland (1990), Larsen (1991) and Pringle et (1994)[5] [6][7]

Taxonomy

Charaxes jahlusa is the sole member of the Charaxes jahlusa species group

Subspecies

Listed alphabetically.[2]

  • C. j. argynnides Westwood, 1864[8] — southern Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, southern Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, northern and eastern Zimbabwe, northern Botswana, South Africa: KwaZulu-Natal, Eswatini
  • C. j. ganalensis Carpenter, 1937[9] — southern Sudan, south-western Ethiopia, northern Uganda, western Kenya
  • C. j. jahlusa (Trimen, 1862) — South Africa: Eastern Cape Province, Western Cape Province
  • C. j. kenyensis Joicey & Talbot, 1925[10] — eastern and north-eastern Kenya, north-eastern Tanzania
  • C. j. kigomaensis van Someren, 1975 [11]— Tanzania: north-west to the eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika
  • C. j. mafiae Turlin & Lequeux, 1992 [12] - Tanzania: Mafia Island
  • C. j. rex Henning, 1978.[13] — southern Zimbabwe, south-eastern Botswana, South Africa: Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and Gauteng provinces
  • C. j. rwandensis Plantrou, 1976.[14] — western Rwanda, north-western Tanzania

References
  1. Trimen, R. 1862c. Rhopalocera Africae Australis Part 1. Papilionidae, Pieridae, Danaidae, Acraeidae, and Nymphalidae [xii] + 190 + [9] pp. Cape Town.
  2. "Charaxes Ochsenheimer, 1816" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  3. Aurivillius, [P.O.]C. 1908-1924. In: Seitz, A. Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde Band 13: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die afrikanischen Tagfalter, 1925, 613 Seiten, 80 Tafeln (The Macrolepidoptera of the World 13).Alfred Kernen Verlag, Stuttgart.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. Woodhall, Steve (2005). Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: Struik. ISBN 978-1-86872-724-7.
  5. Kielland, J. 1990 Butterflies of Tanzania. Hill House, Melbourne and London: 1-363.
  6. Larsen, T.B. 1991 The Butterflies of Kenya and their Natural History. Oxford University Press, Oxford: i-xxii, 1-490.
  7. Pringle et al , 1994. Pennington’s Butterflies of Southern Africa, 2nd edition
  8. Westwood , J.O. 1864. Charaxes Argynnides, Westw. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of London 1864: 10.
  9. Carpenter, G.D.H. 1937 Description of Charaxes jahlusa ganalensis subsp. n. from Abyssinia (Lep. Rhopalocera). Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London (B) 6: 64.
  10. Joicey, J.J., & Talbot, G. 1925. Notes on some Lepidoptera, with descriptions of new forms.Annals and Magazine of Natural History (9) 16: 633-653.
  11. van Someren, V.G.L. 1975. Revisional notes on African Charaxes, Palla and Euxanthe (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part X. Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History (Entomology) 32 (3): 65-136.
  12. Turlin, B., & Lequeux J.P. 1992. Nouveaux rhopaloceres de Tanzanie (Papilionidae, Nymphalidae). 'Lambillionea 92 (4): 311-321.
  13. Henning , S.F. 1978. Description of a new subspecies of Charaxes jahlusa Trimen (Lep.: Nymphalidae) from southern Africa. Entomologist’s Record and Journal of Variation 90 (7-8): 211-215.
  14. Plantrou, J., 1976 Note sur Charaxes jahlusa [Trimen] et description d’une nouvelle sousespèce Charaxes jahlusa rwandensis nova subsp. Bulletin de la Societe des Lépidopteres Francais 1 (1): 60-63 .
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